The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today challenge us to share our experience of Jesus and gather in a community that reveals His Presence.
Present to Us
The reading from the Acts of the Apostles reports how Peter heals a crippled beggar.
* [3:6–10] The miracle has a dramatic cast; it symbolizes the saving power of Christ and leads the beggar to enter the temple, where he hears Peter’s proclamation of salvation through Jesus.1
Psalm 105 praises God’s Faithfulness to Israel.
* [Psalm 105] A hymn to God who promised the land of Canaan to the holy people, cf. Ps 78; 106; 136. Israel is invited to praise and seek the presence of God (Ps 105:1–6), who is faithful to the promise of land to the ancestors (Ps 105:7–11).2
In the Gospel of Luke, two disciples encounter Jesus on their walk to Emmaus.
* [24:13–35] This episode focuses on the interpretation of scripture by the risen Jesus and the recognition of him in the breaking of the bread. The references to the quotations of scripture and explanation of it (Lk 24:25–27), the kerygmatic proclamation (Lk 24:34), and the liturgical gesture (Lk 24:30) suggest that the episode is primarily catechetical and liturgical rather than apologetic.3
Eileen Burke-Sullivan comments that there is a step that we must take and that is realization that we are now members of the Body of Christ the Church. At the end of the Easter Season, the Spirit is poured upon us, not as individuals but as ecclesia – companions laboring together as one body to accomplish God’s will.
Today’s wonderful Gospel of the walk to the village of Emmaus with Christ who instructs the companions and then breaks bread with them. They don’t know him until they break and share the bread as companions on the journey. All of us who are Baptized participate in the Eucharist to know and recognize Christ in ourselves and one another. We also recognize the task of listening to one another and discerning Christ’s presence as one body. The hospitality of eating together, feeding the hungry, recognizing the humanity of each other in our need for food is at the center of this Paschal Mystery.4
Peter Edmonds SJ, tutor in Biblical Studies at Campion Hall, University of Oxford, comments that the Acts of the Apostles contains many edifying and entertaining stories. One concerns a man lame from birth who each day was deposited at the Beautiful Gate Of the Jerusalem temple.
May these reflections on Luke as person, historian, theologian and pastor allow the Acts of the Apostles, to which we listen every time we attend the Eucharist during the Easter season,to serve as a Beautiful Gate which will lead its readers to a more profound understanding of Christ and the early years of Christianity.5
James Crampsey SJ, Director of the Lauriston Jesuit Centre in Edinburgh, comments that the catechism talks about the shift from the visible to the invisible, but the mission surely is also to allow the invisible to become visible. After all, the invisible becomes visible in the Incarnation.
One thing is clear from the Emmaus account: as the visible Christ becomes the invisible Christ, he is no less present in a relationship with the disciples that moves them to mission and proclamation. The breaking of the bread is the visible, prophetic, life-giving gesture of Jesus which actually takes shape in the lives of these disciples. Something like this is at the heart of what is called mystagogy. (proceeding from the visible to the invisible, from the sign to the thing signified, from the sacraments to the mysteries’.[2]) The invisible takes shape in the disciple. By this shall everyone know that you are my disciples. One could speak about the death and resurrection of Christ as the DNA of the Christian. It is what is also called grace, that God-shaping of us by the divine goodness.6
Don Schwager quotes “The Easter Alleluia,” by Saint Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 A.D.
"Now therefore, brethren, we urge you to praise God. That is what we are all telling each other when we say Alleluia. You say to your neighbor, "Praise the Lord!" and he says the same to you. We are all urging one another to praise the Lord, and all thereby doing what each of us urges the other to do. But see that your praise comes from your whole being; in other words, see that you praise God not with your lips and voices alone, but with your minds, your lives and all your actions." (excerpt from commentary on Psalm 148)7
The Word Among Us Meditation on Luke 24:13-35 comments that “Stay with us.” Those three words changed everything for these disciples. When their fellow traveler broke the bread, they recognized him as Jesus, risen from the dead. He had been walking by their side all along!
When we ask Jesus to stay with us, it shows our deep longing for him. We don’t want him to leave our side—ever—because, as he did for the disciples, he opens our eyes to spiritual realities we would otherwise miss. He is always ready to fill our hunger for him.8
Friar Jude Winkler explains that the Acts of the Apostles shares the continuation of Jesus' work in the Church. The Resurrected Jesus is the same but changed in three appearances in Luke. Friar Jude reminds us of the connection of Luke to the Stoic idea that God has a plan for Creation.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, offers part of Mirabai Starr’s wonderful translation of Julian of Norwich’s Showings, which is also aptly called Revelations of Divine Love.
Sometimes, however, that sacred sweetness lies deeply buried, and we fall again into blindness, which leads to all kinds of sorrow and tribulation. So we must take comfort in the essential article of our faith that teaches us not to give into our negative impulses, but to draw strength from Christ, who is our defender against all harm. We need to stand up against evil, even if to do so causes discomfort—even pain—and pray for the time when God will once again reveal himself and fill our hearts with the sweetness of his presence. And so we remain in this muddle all the days of our lives. But our Beloved wants us to trust that he is always with us.9
We have Jesus with us in community, Word, and Sacrament as we attend to His Way of fullness in life.
References
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